Preparing to Move Your Site

Step 1: Allocate Your Resources

Because websites are strategy-driven projects, they’re more about communication than technology. At the outset of your project, you should determine the individuals best suited to fill roles in planning, content development, site building and stewardship. People may fill more than one role, but you should consider all of those roles in organizing your team:

Planning: this role focuses on determining priorities, guiding the decision-making process, building consensus, and championing the project.

Content development: authors, editors, publishers, and subject matter experts all play a crucial part in website development.

Site building: some departments have server administrators or developers who provide technical expertise and work with IT and the web team to integrate third-party systems.

Stewardship: each unit or department should have one pointperson designated as the main liaison for web communications. That person works directly with the web team and oversees the site.

Step 2: Plan Your Site

To develop a plan for your site, you need to:

Decide on and prioritize your audiences

Understand each audience's information and service needs

Know what information you'd like to share with them and what you need them to know about your area

Understanding these three things will help you to structure your site properly, write effective content, and prioritize your efforts.

Step 3: Assess Your Content

Once you have a plan in place, you should review your current content by performing a content audit, mapping your existing content to a new site structure or information architecture, and assigning new content tasks to the right authors.
For writing tips, see Writing for the Web.

Step 4: Gather Your Assets

Once you've completed your content audit and as you're writing and revising copy for your site, you should also start to assemble assets for your site. Good photography and compelling video, for instance, can sometimes tell your story or convey your information more effectively than text alone.

Step 5: Ready Yourself for Migration

In migration, you'll be building your web pages out in the content management system. Your project team will have already built out the structure for your site in the CMS; you'll populate those templates with your content and images. In most cases, content authors should build their pages in the system. The web team may also be able to assist with large-scale migration in certain cases.

John E. Dolibois European Center, Luxembourg

One of Miami's oldest continuous study abroad programs, the Miami University John E. Dolibois Center (MUDEC) in Luxembourg offers students the opportunity to enroll in Miami classes taught by European-based and Ohio-based Miami faculty. Students enjoy a unique combination offirst-class academics, engagement in the local community, and various faculty-guided and independent travel opportunities.

Contact and emergency information for the Luxembourg Campus. Starting with general contact info on the left; additional contact and emergency information on the right.

Voice of America Learning Center

Located midway between Cincinnati and Dayton along I-75, the Voice of America Learning Center (VOALC) offers undergraduate and graduate courses and programs drawn from Miami's Regional and Oxford campuses. Home to Miami's MBA program, the Learning Center provides ready access to graduate programs for area educators and courses leading to the BIS degree for undergraduates.

Contact and emergency information for the Voice of America Campus. Starting with general contact info on the left; additional contact and emergency information on the right.

Hamilton Regional Campus

A compact, friendly, commuter campus, Miami Hamilton offers bachelor's degrees, associate degrees, and beginning coursework for most four-year degrees. Small class sizes, on-site child care, and flexible scheduling make Miami Hamilton attractive to students at all stages of life and career.

Contact and emergency information for the Hamilton Campus. Starting with general contact info on the left; additional contact and emergency information on the right.

Miami University, Oxford Ohio

Nationally recognized as one of the most outstanding undergraduate institutions, Miami University is a public university located in Oxford, Ohio. With a student body of 16,000, Miami effectively combines a wide range of strong academic programs with faculty who love to teach and the personal attention ordinarily found only at much smaller institutions.

Contact and emergency information for the Oxford Campus. Starting with general contact info on the left; additional contact and emergency information on the right.